- Since I watched no fewer than 5 shows last season, I’m trying to stay disciplined and just watch one for fall, Gundam Build Fighters. I made the right choice. It doesn’t take itself seriously at all, and Ramba Ral makes a cameo in episode one. You can watch it legally on YouTube.
- If you’re still decided what to watch and where, my Twitter friend Scott took notes and it looks like Crunchyroll is streaming 30+ shows this season. I’ll just leave my Crunchyroll affiliate link riiiight here.
- It’s pretty obvious I support Crunchyroll as it exists today. But not everyone feels so warmly toward the site, which does have a sordid past. (Before it made things right, it was an illegal streaming site.) Here’s why the Seventh Style bloggers think supporting Crunchyroll is bad for the anime industry.
- Here’s why cosplayer Chaka Cumberbatch is demanding better representation for black girl nerds in geek culture. The best part of this article is the story in the last two paragraphs.
- Mo’ fandoms, mo’ problems? If you think so, you’ll love the fact that there’s now an advice column exclusively for fangirl problems. You’ll notice my friend Lisa, who guest-blogged last week, wrote this article.
- Nothing beats this 2011 birth announcement baby name. And to think, that kid is now two years old!
- TIL there’s a maid cafe in New York City. Has anybody been there?
- How 2013 made anime academic Charles Dunbar love anime again. I’m glad The Eccentric Family was one of the reasons. Welcome back to the fandom, Charles!
(Screenshot via Gundam Build Fighters, episode one.)
2 Comments.
I found a number of the links today both interesting and informative.
The Crunchyroll one was particularly of interest as I’m a subscriber (I signed up in less than 24 hours when you gave me a 48 hour pass,) though I had no idea how small a difference it made to the bottom line of the producers of the anime I love. Personally I thought the production companies were given a flat fee to air and then a bit more every time their series was watched.
The only helpful thing I can think of for the publishers is perhaps US and other companies (Funimation for instance) use viewing numbers from there to determine if they should license a series.
At least I’ve been doing more purchasing of DVDs (really need to get a blueray drive for my PS since that’s how I watch everything since I don’t have a T.V.)
The article on the need for presentation for black geeks. There truly is a dearth of black characters. It seems many are an afterthought. I was also saddened to learn that Dwayne McDuffie has passed away. I really loved the character Static and used to watch the Cartoon Network series based on him. It was a breath of fresh air. I also loved that in the JLA series that Green Lantern was a strong black man.
Also, it resounded, simply (as you know, Lauren) that I am a member of a very small minority group compared to the overall population.
I’ve tried doing a bit of my part. I’ve written the start of a serial (first three episodes are so in need to a re-write called “Amelia Dauntless, Girl Adventurer” she and her professor father are black. All about he being a “professor at large” on constant expeditions traveling about the world (which is an alternate 1930’s) via an airship along with it’s crew of techs, body guard and a number of academics. I really need to get back to that. Amelia is a very insistent character.
Also enjoyed the other links, but the two I mentioned were my favorite by far as they resonated.
I have a few problems with the Crunchyroll article on Seventh Style that I managed to skim in my slightly drunken stupor.
The main one is that, no matter how little, you’re contributing to the anime industry in the little way you can.
Now, server costs are relatively easy to estimate, but costs of salaried positions are relatively harder to estimate. I can’t say, nor can anyone say, whether Crunchyroll is paying their employees $20,000/year in San Fransisco. Likely, at that wage, no one would work there. You can’t live at that wage in SF. Not even mentioning the fact that upper management is being paid more.
It also isn’t putting into play the (is this even a) possibility that Crunchyroll sends a fraction of that money they’re receiving to the original licensor based on view count or some other variable.
Also concerning is the fact that, in no part of the article, it directly mentions licensing costs. Part of that subscription service goes to licensing 30+ shows PER SEASON (which is $1000-2000 per episode according to this article http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-09).
And they’re making the assumption that an anime episode costs $110,000 per episode, which he/she A. Doesn’t source and B. is contrary to this news article (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-11-29/toaru-majutsu-no-index-producer/26-episode-anime-costs-300-million-yen).
So overall, this seems more like a justification (read: excuse) than anything else. Which is relatively frustrating.